And yet physical discs make up over 60% of game sales.
Just because they’ve enshitified new more profitable revenue streams outside of game sales doesn’t mean they’re not shitty for dumping the core competency that brought them customers in the first place. If physical game sales were less than 3% of their profit then they aren’t a game company and are already lost.
If all this data is leading somewhere it’s towards more live service microtransaction slop anyway. If the 60%+ physical of sales that all of their massively popular single player games are that small a percentage of their profit and “digital sales and add on content” is that large or means that are mostly a microtransaction company already.
You seem to be under the impression that I am defending Sony or other game sales distributors who are getting rid of physical media. That is not what is happening here.
I agree it’s shitty. I am pointing out the trend, not trying to mount a defense for a corp.
Video game companies still sell millions of physical copies of games every year, but that’s not where they make the bulk of their money. As Sony’s latest corporate report shows, physical game sales for PlayStation 5 and PS4 are practically a rounding error on a rounding error, and the number just keeps going down. The total percentage of revenue from physical software sales is now half of what it was before the PS5 launched.
Edit: I would also like a source for the 60% of games being physical because that’s not what I found when I looked it up and if it’s based on 2023’s data it’s not accurate to today’s market.
Not quite. It says that FY2021 had 68% digital sales. The physical sales largely seem to come from 2020 and earlier (which puts the net total at 60% physical, but that’s mostly the PS4 games).
It’s 2026 now, I doubt the trend to digital has reversed in that time.
And yet physical discs make up over 60% of game sales.
Just because they’ve enshitified new more profitable revenue streams outside of game sales doesn’t mean they’re not shitty for dumping the core competency that brought them customers in the first place. If physical game sales were less than 3% of their profit then they aren’t a game company and are already lost.
If all this data is leading somewhere it’s towards more live service microtransaction slop anyway. If the 60%+ physical of sales that all of their massively popular single player games are that small a percentage of their profit and “digital sales and add on content” is that large or means that are mostly a microtransaction company already.
You seem to be under the impression that I am defending Sony or other game sales distributors who are getting rid of physical media. That is not what is happening here.
I agree it’s shitty. I am pointing out the trend, not trying to mount a defense for a corp.
Edit: I would also like a source for the 60% of games being physical because that’s not what I found when I looked it up and if it’s based on 2023’s data it’s not accurate to today’s market.
https://twicethebits.com/2025/06/19/the-shift-to-digital-gaming-why-physical-sales-are-declining/
I got the sixty percent from the op. It says quite plainly that total digital sales are near 30%
Not quite. It says that FY2021 had 68% digital sales. The physical sales largely seem to come from 2020 and earlier (which puts the net total at 60% physical, but that’s mostly the PS4 games).
It’s 2026 now, I doubt the trend to digital has reversed in that time.
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